Bhopāl (Hindi: भोपाल, Urdu: بھوپال, bʰoːpɑːl) is a city in central India. It is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of Bhopal District and Bhopal Division. Bhopal is the second largest city in Madhya Pradesh after Indore. Bhopal is known as the City of Lakes as its landscape is dotted with a number of natural as well as man made lakes.
Historically, Bhopal was also the capital of the Bhopal state. The city attracted international attention as a consequence of the Bhopal disaster, when the Union Carbide plant (now a part of Dow Chemical Company) leaked deadly Methyl Isocyanate gas during the night of December 3 1984. The poisonous gas killed thousands of people in the city and its neighbouring areas, and thousands of others still suffer from its effects even two decades later. Since then, Bhopal has been a center of protests and campaigns which have been joined by many people across the globe.
On 11 April 2005, the Indian Space Research Organisation established a Master Control Facility in Ayodhya Nagar, to control the movements of satellites. It is the second of its kind in the country. The Indian Institute of Forest Management in Bhopal offers a unique MBA degree in Forest Management. Bhopal is one of the six cities chosen to have All India Institute of Medical Sciences Institute apart from Delhi. The land has been allotted by the government and construction work has been started for the same.
